GREESHMA Vs. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE CRIME

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Can the head of a Special Investigation Team, specially constituted to investigate a crime, who is not the officer-in- charge of a police station, file a final report under sec. 173 Cr.P.C The aforesaid question arises for consideration in this proceeding.

(2.) Petitioners are the three accused in S.C. No.764/2023 before the Additional Sessions Court, Neyattinkara, which arose out of Crime No.1311 of 2022 of the Parassala Police Station. They face an indictment for the offences under Sec. 302, 364, 328, 201 and 203 r/w sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. After the case was committed to the sessions court, petitioners questioned the order of committal of the case through an application filed as CMP No. 81/2023, contending that the investigating officer who had filed the final report did not possess the jurisdiction to do so. The learned Sessions Judge dismissed the said application by the impugned order against which this challenge has been raised under sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (for short, 'the Cr.P.C').

(3.) The case relates to the death of a young man named Sharon Raj. The prosecution alleges that the accused had murdered Sri. Sharon Raj, who was in a relationship with the first accused. It is alleged that the accused entered into a conspiracy to poison and murder the deceased due to his refusal to withdraw from the relationship with the first accused, as another alliance had been arranged for the first accused. In furtherance of their conspiracy, the first accused had, on 14/10/2022, seduced the deceased to visit her at her house and to make love with him. The deceased, on reaching her house, was served with an ayurvedic concoction laced with poison. After consuming the drink, the deceased started vomiting and soon fell ill, as his internal organs were severely damaged. On 30/10/2022, while undergoing treatment at Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, Sri. Sharon Raj succumbed to death. The second and third accused allegedly destroyed the evidence by concealing the bottle containing the poison, and the accused thus committed the offences alleged.